All posts for the month June, 2015

The Ventrue antitribu Grinder deck is a toolbox deck based mainly, but not exclusively of vampires of the Ventrue antitribu clan. It can bleed, block and fight to some extent, and you can see in these three areas each of the three clan disciplines of the Ventrue antitribu, Dominate, Auspex and Fortitude. More often than not it grinds down its opponents with steady bleeding and blocking, hence the name of the deck archetype. The deck’s motto is “Patience is a Virtue“, since it is a rather slow deck, which really takes off in the late mid- and end-game, and needs to find the right spot to lunge against its prey(s). The Ventrue antitribu Grinder deck could be played for long time, since most the cards exist since the Sabbat War expansion. But the deck archetype became popular and successful in the tournament scene only in 2008-2009 sometime after the release of the 3rd Edition expansion and the Ventrue antitribu vampires that came along with it.Continue Reading

The Danish National VTES Championship 2015 and the Danish European VTES Championship Qualifier 2015 will take place at the same weekend. The two tournaments are scheduled to take place in Copenhagen, Denmark on August 22nd and 23rd, 2015. Everyone, of course, is welcome to participate, and the organizers hope that as many players can make their way to Copenhagen as possible.

Format: Standard Constructed, detailed rules can be found on the VEKN website.

Number of rounds: 3 Rounds + Final

Time limit: 2 hours per round

Entry Fee: DKK 50.

Pre-registration: Please pre-register by email to “c [/dot/] nislev [/at/] gmail [/dot/] com” so the organizers have an idea about numbers for prize support and other purposes.

Travel Info & Accommodation: The organizers will do our best to help players from abroad with accommodation, either at the homes of local players or at a hostel/hotel if preferred. For info about accommodation and flights to Copenhagen Airport (Kastrup), email “c [/dot/] nislev [/at/] gmail [/dot/] com“.

More information on the tournament and questions can be asked also on VEKN.net.

On the first weekend of July, the city of Bad Nauheim hosts a gaming event named “Bad Nauheim spielt“. Part of the event is a VTES constructed tournament called “Grapple in the Art Museum“. Details for the tournament are as following:

This week I finished uploading and editing the VTES Clan Newsletters that have been published on rec.games.trading-card.jyhad in 1999. In total there a 76 newsletters written by a number of VTES players in that year.

It’s quite interesting to see how deck building has evolved over the years. These rather old decks often feature a number of discipline cards and include cards that are deemed too weak these days. But maybe this is because nowadays the players have access to a wider selection of crypt cards (so it’s easier to satisfy discipline requirements) and now there’s a better understanding about cards and their effectiveness in general.

On the other hand, you see some concepts in deckbuilding that only much much later got their breakthrough. For example, the Gangrel Clan Newsletter September 1999 already has the basic concept for the Psyche!/Earth Meld deck, that around 2012 with Enkidu as its star vampire took really off.

“The clans of Caine have only recently seen the true face of Clan Assamite. Once assumed to be mere assassins, the Assamites have thrown off the Camarillas debilitating curse and their mantle of silence. A diverse clan of noble warriors, erudite scholars, learned sorcerers and murderous diablerists, the Assamites have stepped forth to claim their legacy in the Final Nights.